Monday, August 30, 2010

I've been talking a lot about my new water color Apple design lately...well, here's some other apples I did a long time ago in a very different style:

I found this out in the garage last month...an oil pastel drawing I made long before kids, and not long before I was married, graduated college, and started teaching. Yeah, I used to teach...briefly. After college I subbed for a year and then got a full time position teaching 7th grade English. I only lasted 5 weeks! Every day I had been loosing ground in the classroom and loosing sleep at home, until the stress permeated every area of my life. I had to leave, though was one of the hardest things I had ever done in my life (I had wanted to teach since 7th grade--it's hard to leave behind a dream).

So, everyone, as school starts this month, please consider sending up a prayer for both our teachers and students as they start the school year.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK:
This was done with oil pastels. I always loved how the apples on this came out, but disliked how the basket came out. The bowl the apples were in (the real ones that inspired this) was red...I decided to try green for more contrast. Didn't like how that looked so I somewhat unsuccessfully tried to cover the green with brown. All that reworking left it looking a little "meh" (IMHO).

Then I was just starting to dabble in graphical programs. Now, I think I might see what I can do with the on the computer to clean it up. Is that cheating? Or just using new tools to make art?

Friday, August 27, 2010

I'm very artsy. I draw, I paint, do calligraphy, craft, bead, and do graphical design...but I don't sew. Not at all. It's just one art form I never took the time to learn.

But, boy do I admire those who do. It's an art form that is beautiful and functional.

Take the quilt: It's functional--you can curl up in one on a cold day. But it's also very beautiful, too. The time, talent, and artistry of most quilts makes them more than just bedding. They're art.

I just recently learned about a project which is taking quilts and using them to raise funds and awareness for Alzheimers. The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative auctions and sells donated quilts, and sponsors a nationally touring exhibit of quilts about Alzheimer's. They have raised more than $411,000 since January 2006.

The quilts sold on their site are beautiful...and many of them have symbolic meanings related to Alzheimers. And, if you happen to live in New England and want to see some of the pieces up close, you can view them now through October 24 at the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont.

Which I wasn't hurt or offended by at all...in fact, I agree a little. It's overused...and when I taught I never really understood the "apple/teacher" connection (I know, I know..."an apple for the teacher"...but still).

So here's my questions (ok...I'm supposed to just ask one, so pick whichever one you want, but if you want to answer all of them that's cool, too):

Do you like the apple symbol for teaching? Or are you bored of it? What do you think would make a better teacher/education symbol? And, any suggestions for other text or quotes I could put with my apple?

Please leave your answer in a comment below. And, if you have a blog and would like to post your own question you can leave your link at An Island Life.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Every month I go out searching for blog giveaways CafePress and Zazzle is sponsoring. I like to share it because, hey...if you win you might choose something of mine (which you can find at Zazzle at http://www.zazzle.com/scribbleprints* or in the CafePress marketplace by searching under galesgiggles or galesgifts - *grin*). Here's what I've found so far this month (organized by end date)!

Friday, August 20, 2010

I promised to add some more teaching posters before the end of the week, and here they are!

You can get 15% off these and all my posters through September 30 with coupon code 15OFMYPOSTER.

(Want a different quote? Just click the customization button on the product page and swop out your own words for the ones I've chosen. You don't even have to stick with the teaching theme...I could see this apple going well with cooking and food quotes too!)

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Welcome to this week’s edition of Aloha Friday! Every Friday (well, ok, almost every Friday) I ask a simple question--nothing that requires a lengthy response.

Last week on this blog I discussed "The Creativity Crisis" -- an article I read which talked about how creativity scores for children in America had been decreasing since the 1990's (and by "creativity" they didn't just mean "arts and crafts" but creative thinking in terms of being able to think of new ideas.)

So, related to that, here's my question....

How do you encourage creativity and creative thinking in your children?

Please leave your answer in a comment below. And, if you have a blog and would like to post your own question you can leave your link at An Island Life.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Announcing my newest design - a charming little red apple! It's funny what turns up when you're doing water colors with the kids. This is my first water color design here at Scribbleprints (a little different than the usual scribbles I feature here...but its a medium I've enjoyed working in for some time .)

Well, of course I had to combine it was some teaching quotes. Here's one poster I made:

I have more teaching/learning quotes on bumper stickers, and will be adding more posters soon and probably some mousepads and cards with quotes too. (Gonna try to finish the posters by the end of the week before Zazzle's 40% off sale ends).

It doesn't spell it out for you like the last one, but yeah, it rocks too!

Oh, and if you had noticed a trend on the last few Magic Marker Monday's of no markers being involved...and were wondering if my boys spent all their free time making things out of legos...well, you'ld pretty much be right. :-)

Thursday, August 12, 2010

I have a friend who has been teaching English to Japanese kids overseas (or did before she had Visa troubles). She talked to me about the difference in learning styles there and here. "The kids at the Japanese school are smart in one sense...they know a lot of rote learning and can spit out facts left and right--but ask them to do something creative and they can't do it."

I thought of that while reading an article by Newsweek titled The Creativity Crisis. It talked about how American kid's creativity (based on the Torrance Creativity Test) had been declining since the 1990's. And by creativity they didn't just mean artistic creativity, but creative thought--the ability to think of original and useful new ideas. That's a serious crisis.

The article talked about how various places around the world have started moving away from drill and kill education to focus more on creativity and problem solving skills. Meanwhile American schools have been emphasizing standardized curriculum, rote memorization, and nationalized testing. Members of one Chinese University commented to a visiting American that "‘You’re racing toward our old model. But we’re racing toward your model, as fast as we can."

When I was training to become a teacher I saw that push to make American Schools more like Asian schools. But I had friends from Japan and Korea who had grown up in those schools, and what they described was not what I wanted for our children. They basically gave up their childhood for their education...and it seems that creativity was a casualty of that system as well.

What do you think? Do you see this happening in schools? Compared to when you were a child, do schools now seem to do a better or worse job at fostering creative thinking? And how do your encourage your own children to think creatively? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Every month I go out searching for blog giveaways CafePress is sponsoring (and Zazzle and Printfection too...but CafePress seems to sponsor the most). I like to share it because, hey...if you win you might choose something of mine (which are easy to find in the marketplace by searching under galesgiggles or galesgifts - *grin*). Here's what I've found so far this month (organized by end date)!

Monday, August 2, 2010

Last week I wrote about definition in art...prompted by a question posted on the blog Scoutie Girl. Reading another artist's answer to that question prompted the following thoughts on "intent."

Penelope Bridge wrote about "designing with intention" - making some insightful points about the importance of "moving with intent" in both dance and art (I should warn you that her post contains some nude pictures of dancers...so consider who's watching in the background before clicking to read post).

I've always been one to consider the exception, and so naturally my mind jumped to the idea of the unintended.

Some of the medium and forms of art that I like best are those that are not totally under my control. I like the randomness of water colors. My favorite water color painting method is to create a shape from colorless water then dab colors into it. The result is extremely imprecise and the final artwork is often far from the original intent.

My scribbleprints are similar. They start as scribbles, created by moving the pencil or pen quickly and loosly. Whether I scribble with an intent for a particular shape (a tree or a cross, for example), or just scribble to create something random, the pens movement is not precisely controlled. Then I take those scribbles and add precision to them...meticulously fill them in with a deliberate controlled hand, scan them and change their colors online, use the patterns to fill new shapes. In the process I often find shapes and patterns that were not originally intended...this scribble resemples hair, these linen meet in the same way that the vein of a leaf does, ect. In what originally was random or intended for something else, I discover something new. So there is a dance between the intended and unintended in my work.

I decided to start featuring some of my designs on the blog. My "Can Your Inner Child Come Out and Play" design was just a witty idea that was running around in my head for a while. It was one of the first humorous designs I added to my shops. You can find this design at Zazzle, CafePress and Printfection.

This post is participating in Monday;...because the cheerful yellow sun just fit. Click the Mellow Yellow Icon to see more yellow photos and art (mostly photos).